


Twelve Silver Rings

by FireflySong



Series: Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [15]
Category: Tales of Phantasia
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, Post-Game(s), and mirald because that was the translation used in the patch i played, claus/mirald hinted at but not centered on, i use claus because thats what tog introduced him to me as, just claus bragging about his twelve swanky pacts with spirits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24785488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflySong/pseuds/FireflySong
Summary: It's only been a few weeks since Claus returned home to Euclid and Mirald. Now, he sits at the table in his house staring at the jewelry box that finally arrived, and can't believe that he actually managed to do all of this.Written for Day 15: Believe of the Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge over on tumblr
Relationships: Klarth F. Lester & Milard Rune
Series: Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770988
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Twelve Silver Rings

**Author's Note:**

> i will single handily double the fics written in this fandom over the past couple of years, in a singe month. just you watch. that being said, claus and mirald are not characters i really write alot about (if at all) so hopefully i managed to keep them somewhat in character.
> 
> you can find me on tumblr at love-fireflysong if you feel so inclined!

“You know, a part of me still can’t believe that I actually managed to do all of this.”

From where Claus sat at the large table in the center of the room, he heard Mirald’s voice come amused from around the corner where she was putting away some books onto one of the many, many bookshelves that littered the house. “You’re gonna have to be more specific, Claus. Are you talking about defeating Dhaos? Changing fate so magic is still a thing in the future? Travelling 100 years into the future to fight Dhaos again? Continuing _yet another_ 50 years into the future? Riding flying machines? Defeating Dhaos for the _third time?_ Actually managing to _kill_ him this time? You did a lot of stuff in the month you were out of the house you know.”

Claus gave a short burst of surprised laughter. “I mean, technically I was gone for closer to three months...”

“Oh of course. I must have forgotten, what with all the _time-travelling_ that you were off doing! My mistake.” Her bite was dry, but even without seeing her face, Claus could hear the smile in her voice. Mirald came from around the corner, and yup, there it was, the small smile that was just the upturned corner of her mouth. “I was being serious though, you are going to have to be more specific. Which of these frankly unbelievable events is _the most_ unbelievable to you?”

Claus shrugged, a little cowed but most mostly cocky. “Well, I mean _all of them_ if we’re being honest here, but they weren’t what I was talking about. I was talking about _these_.” He made a gesture to the little jewelry box he had had custom ordered when he had returned a few weeks back now. The box itself was pretty plain on the outside, just simple cedar unadorned with any designs or engravings. The inside on the other hand, was another story.

Inside the box was strips of royal blue velvet, sewn tightly together to create creases for the twelve rings inside to stand up and show off their assortment of gems. Each ring sparkled in the light of the nearby candle, and it seemed a trick of the same light, but one could swear that something seemed to swirl inside each of the jewels, but with a blink they were solid colors again. Looking for all the world like normal, though ridiculously expensive, rings.

Claus felt Mirald come up behind him and place a hand on his shoulder as she looked over his head onto the table. “Oh! So it finally came in, did it? I must admit, the Laiott Trading Company does good work, even if it took them a while to find this for you. I still can’t believe that you managed to convince them to locate this in the first place.”

“They took it as a special request. Elwin and Nancy did owe me a favor after all.”

“Of course. Because I forgot that amongst all of the other hero-ing you were off doing, you were also playing matchmaker on the side.” Mirald tweaked Claus’s ear lightly and he chucked. “These are all of the rings though?”

He nodded proudly. “Yup, and each of them has a pact with a different spirit.”

“I still can’t believe that you managed to prove your theory true. That humans using magic _is_ possible through the use of spirits.”

“Exactly! All those years of research, the pain I endured as those fools laughed at me, at us! And for what? I was right!” Claus narrowed his eyes and laughed darkly. “Let’s see those idiots laugh now when I summon Maxwell in front of them and watch him proceed to throw dark balls of molecular energy at them!” He stopped laughing when Mirald tweaked his ear again, much harder this time.

“Don’t be ridiculous. As if I would let you destroy a place of learning.”

Claus looked over his shoulder at her, a smile on his face showing off his teeth. “But you’re not saying that they don’t deserve it I noticed.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t misconstrue my words like that.” She paused for a moment before sharing his smile. “Though it would be funny to watch them cower and grovel, I admit.”

“Aha! I knew it!”

“Oh, shut up. Now, show me which one’s Maxwell’s again?”

Claus eagerly pointed to a a ring placed on on the far left of the second row. A dark turquoise was centered in the silver ring, with small semi-circles of open space just below the left and right sides of the jewel letting the brilliant blue of the velvet come through. “This one. We found it near the end of the Moria Mines. I had to have a pact with Sylph, Undine, Efreet, and Gnome—” he pointed at each of the rings (opal, aquamarine, garnet, and ruby in that order) on the top row “—before we could even meet him.”

“What does he look like again?”

“An old man with big bushy white eyebrows and mustache. He wears a big black hat and robes and carries a staff.” As though sensing that she was looking at his own brown hat hung over by the door, he scoffed. “Not like that though. It was more triangular in shape, I guess? Kind of reminds me of the hats that the people in Suzu’s village wore now that I think about it...”

“Yes, because I clearly know what those hats looked like.” Before he could respond, Mirald pointed at a sapphire ring on the bottom row. “I’ve always liked the color of that one. Which one’s that?”

To her surprise, Claus made a face not unlike that of pained grimace. “Oh, that’s, uh, Gremlin Lair.”

“Gremlin Lair? Who or what is a ‘Gremlin Lair’?”

“It’s hard to explain? I mean, uh—” he quickly backtracked at the flat, unimpressed look on her face. “—it’s a summon.”

“Oh, wow. I never would have guessed. Try again.”

Claus sighed. “It’s what it says on the tin. When I summon from this ring, a bunch of gremlins come out and attack whatever I’m fighting by biting them.”

“...and you had to fight them to get it to agree to making a pact with you?”

“No, not... exactly. I promised them that I would feed them whenever I called them.”

Mirald sighed painfully as she rubbed at a spot between her eyebrows. “And what, exactly, did you promise to feed them?”

“...my mana?”

“Claus!” She was pleased to note that he at least sunk a little in his seat in shame. “Why on earth would you promise them that?!”

With a groan, Claus put his head in his hands. “I thought it would be useful? I don’t know, Mirald! It just looked so hungry and at that point we were so close to storming Dhaos’ Castle that I was desperate for anything that might help us!” 

Anticipating the no doubt scathing scolding he was about to receive, Claus frantically grabbed at a ring on the same row, but the other end as the sapphire one, and shoved it into her face. “Here!”

He watched Mirald’s face go pink all of a sudden, and didn’t understand why until he looked at the ring in his fingers, and proceeded to turn the same shade.

“Uhhhhh...”

The voice that came out of her was not one he had ever heard before, small, high-pitched, and squeaky. “Please tell me there’s a reason you’re shoving a _diamond ring_ into my face.”

“Yeah! I-I-I mean, of course there is, yeah. It’s the ring that has a pact with Origin.”

Though her face was still pink, Mirald had at least recovered her wits enough to gawk at the ring in shock. “You mean Origin. _The_ Origin. Spirit of All Things and King of Spirits, Origin. _That Origin?_ ”

“The very one!”

“Oh, I have _got_ to hear how in the world you of all people managed to convince Origin to agree to a pact.”

The smile on Claus’s face was almost scary in it’s eagerness. “Okay. So, in order to forge the sword that would break the barrier surrounding Dhaos’ Castle, we needed to find two swords of fire and ice, and a pact ring...”


End file.
